I’m at a friend’s wedding this weekend — a garden wedding in North Carolina. So today’s Sunday Musing is short and sweet, and I’ve got gardens on my mind.
In a nice bit of spiritual serendipity, the texts for today from the lectionary involve images of gardening and harvests.
GALATIANS 6: 7-10
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
LUKE 10: 1-3a
The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way.”
I love these verses from Galatians and Luke in conjunction with each other. What we sow, we reap. And so our lives bring forth a harvest.
When paired, they remind me of all the work it takes to garden. Gardens don’t just appear from nowhere. You have to sow the seeds and tend and nurture what has been planted. There comes a time for reaping as well — but that also takes work. Harvesting isn’t just plucking fruit from a vine. It involves a certain kind of knowledge. When is the fruit ripe? How do you harvest so you don’t harm the plant? And then there’s the cleaning, prepping, storing, and preparing the fruits and vegetables for eating. Sow, grow, reap, harvest, feast — the rhythm of gardens and our spiritual lives.
What are you sowing today? And is anything in your garden ready for harvest? Be attentive to growing goodness, and reap compassion and courage.
INSPIRATION
SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS,
you bless us with gardens —
flower gardens, dizzy from
fragrant abundance, or beds in
neat rows, but above all the garden
we dream of, with wall, well, and
white-gravel walkways, its bench
shaded by fruit trees, its arbor of
grapevines or roses, its fountain,
stone steps, statues, and box hedge.
May it flourish, that garden of my
imagination, anywhere, welcoming
in any weather.
— Br. David Steindl-Rast
Watch this short video meditation with Br. David Steindl-Rast — Stop, Look, Go
Your phrase “ the rhythm of gardens” resounded for me , actually screamed at me! It feels like a promise that God expects and even requires rhythm for life. These days feel so often tumultuous that I need reassurance that God is always working somewhere, sometime, somehow and through someone to take care of Life. I hope to be the someone sometime and somehow.
Short and sweet is perfect for this Sunday!